Spartacus is a more action-packed – and more entertaining – show than the
hugely popular fantasy series Game of Thrones, says Ross Jones.

Most fans of George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones would agree that there are three problems with it: Martin takes years to write each book; HBO takes a year to film each series; and it’s over far too quickly. But many may not realise that there’s another series ticking all the same boxes:blood, boobs, and skullduggery. And they may even end up loving Spartacus – which comes to its sadly inevitable conclusion tonight on Sky1, but is ripe for rediscovery on Blu-Ray or on-demand – even more.

Like GoT, Spartacus is largely about sword-wielding men in ridiculous outfits vying for power in a brutal, far-off land. Like GoT, it’s brimful of sex and violence. Unlike GoT, though, it’s based on fact, not fantasy – but not off-puttingly so. An amped-up, adults-only Horrible Histories from US cable channel Starz, it tells the story of the Thracian warrior-slave’s three-year rebellion against Rome using slow-motion, limb-flinging fight scenes, rampant nudity and baroque language delivered in incongruous accents (again, like GoT). But if you care to look past its beyond-camp men-in-pants aesthetic, you’ll find one of the most thrilling TV sagas of our time.

Shaky early episodes tried too hard to shock with lingering shots of John Hannah (as Spartacus’s dominus Batiatus) being pleasured by slaves, grisly videogame-style "boss fights" and a largely clothes-free Lucy Lawless. It’s all too easy to see why many instantly dismissed Spartacus as a masturbatory aid for teenage boys.

Then the strangest thing happened: even if you’d stayed solely for the flesh, it became impossible not to care about these characters and their miserable, doomed lives. At one point Spartacus – aware that Batiatus had his wife killed simply to keep his prize fighter in line – is ordered to kill Varro, his only friend, on the whim of a Roman nobleman’s oik son. Varro pulls the sword into his own throat, begs his sobbing friend to finish the job then asks him to provide for his family. And in this moment, the Spartacus equivalent of GoT's Ned Stark being beheaded in front of his daughter, series creator Steven S DeKnight nailed his pulpy formula: grand guignol blood-letting powered by heart-stopping twists and high melodrama.

The performances, particularly the late, great Andy Whitfield(he died of cancer at 39 in 2011)asSpartacus, became so good that you stopped noticing the clunky Aussie accents. The violence became so jaw-droppingly inventive that at one stage an actual jaw was shown dropping to the ground. And the sex scenes gave way to grown-up, if still vaguely pornographic, romance. Spartacus has even matured enough to embrace one of the most convincing gay relationships ever seen on screen. Some critics have complained about Game of Thrones’s lack of male nudity, but that’s not a problem here.

Andy Whitfield starred in Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Many beloved characters have died along the way, and many hated ones too. Whereas Game of Thrones delights in its parade of villains and anti-heroes getting away with murder, Spartacus likes to see justice served. Yes, moral ambiguity has its place. But sometimes a bad guy is exactly that, and there’s nothing for it but to show him taking a fireball square in the face. Does this thirst for vengeance make Spartacus a better show? Not necessarily. It does, however, make you more likely to stand up and applaud at the end of an episode (as my wife did during the cathartic, slaughter-filled climax of the first season).

Spartacus is certainly the more action-packed – dare I say, more entertaining – show. As brilliant as GoT undoubtedly is, it can drag. Last week’s episode, you may recall, featured much trudging through vast landscapes, Joffrey yelling at a tailor, and exactly one swordfight. In the first season, a battle would be represented by Robb Stark dismounting a horse, talking about said battle, and looking a little sweaty. For season two, a bigger budget was granted by HBO and we got the near-perfect ‘Blackwater’ episode, showing war on a scale previously unseen on television. Except that Spartacus has had about three Blackwaters in each of its four series – all made with considerably less money, using CGI and a single sound stage in New Zealand. This final season – a continual cat-and-mouse game between Spartacus’s army and Marcus Crassus – has been one epic battle after another, each more nail-biting than the last. Cities were stormed; bigger fireballs were thrown; and we were treated to the unforgettable sight of a bridge made from frostbitten corpses. The mere thought what the finale might have in store brings a lump to the throat.

Dame Diana Rigg as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones

Though it began a year before Game of Thrones, in 2010, Spartacus has never come close to the former’s cultural ubiquity. There have been no lengthy hagiographies in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, or broadsheet newspapers such as this one; its cast haven’t been featured in cheesy out-of character-fashion shoots; its salty dialogue, laden as it is with references to "Jupiter’s c--k", is not quoted at many dinner parties. But that will change. This trashy, scrappy underdog of a show is getting the glorious death it deserves. Its legend will live on.

Spartacus: War of the Damned is out on DVD & Blu-ray box-set on April 29, through Anchor Bay